Game 6: a game of what-ifs...

First off, let me congratulate the Los Angeles Kings players and coaches on their championship. Oh, and I guess the 2 million bandwagoners in Hollywood that probably celebrated last night worse than Stu, Alan and Phil. No, but seriously, if there are any real Kings fans out there (are there? okay probably a few) congrats.

Secondly, this is not an article bashing the referees and making excuses why the Devils lost mainly because I hate when fans of other teams do such things. This is simply dedicated to wondering what would have happened if the officials didn't influence the game in such a negative way.

View full sizeSaed Hindash/The Star-LedgerThe only thing left to do is wonder, what if?

When Pierre McGuire thinks a call is bad, you know it's bad. Moments before the 5 minute boarding call on Steve Bernier, Stephen Gionta was boarded at center ice. The only difference was that there was no glass between the benches so the boarding of Gionta either went unnoticed or more likely just simply got disregarded. Don't get me wrong, Bernier's hit was a clear boarding call and if this series did go 7, no way Shanahan lets him play in that game. But the thing is, if the Kings are whistled for the obvious boarding call, Bernier's hit never happens. Oh great, now I sound like Torts trying to defend Rupp punching Marty.

I'm not defending the hit by Bernier. Was it a mistake he wishes he could take back? Yes. Was it worthy of the penalty and a game misconduct? I think so. Did it end up costing the Devils the game? Pretty much. The resulting 5 minute powerplay yielded 3 goals and took the life out of the Devils. But what happens if that play never happened?

The Devils go on a powerplay where, let's be honest, they probably wouldn't score but at least it wouldn't have been trying to climb Mount Everest on one tank of oxygen.

Maybe the Devils still go on and lose. Maybe they end up scoring on the powerplay and grab momentum in the game. Who knows. The only thing I know is that the Kings took advantage of their opportunities and won the game easily. Kind of like when a linesman took out Anton Volchenkov and allowed Dustin Brown to walk in clear and led to Jeff Carter's tally making it 4-0. After that, yeah, Mount Everest? Try attempting to swim across the Pacific Ocean. But I'm not blaming the refs. I just wish things would have been different. Losing is one thing, but in that fashion? It's hard to stomach.

Oh well. We lost. It's sad to admit but we did. I will just always wonder...what if?